


Ice cream and Brotherly love

by metalmaddog



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-11
Updated: 2017-05-11
Packaged: 2018-10-30 15:35:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10879773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/metalmaddog/pseuds/metalmaddog
Summary: Ser Grinnaux behaves out of character.





	Ice cream and Brotherly love

The Vault’s dining hall was a large square room with a high vaulted ceiling. The windows were large but narrow and decorated with paintings of Ishgardian heroes slaying dragons or heretics. Several magnificent looking pillars were placed along the length of the room to hold up the heavy ceiling. Three large chandeliers hung from the ceiling and illuminated the room during dark winter days, with some extra candles on the walls for the darkest corners. The long heavy wooden tables, where everyone sat, were placed around and between the pillars, so that at on occasion there were spots were a pillar would cut between the eaters. Most of the chairs were long benches. In the middle there was a large blue carpet that ran from the double doors to the end of the room. The room ended to a raised area where the Archbishop’s seat was, facing towards the centre of the room, surrounded by his Knights. The area was somewhat separate from the rest of the room: inside an alcove of a sort that could be completely split from the working force of the building with a heavy curtain. The alcove was in the shape of a half hexagon and most of the wall behind the Archbishop’s seat was made of glass and depicting a glorious battle where Ishgardian were ruthlessly dominating the Dravanians. There the Knights sat around heavy mahogany table that even Ser Grinnaux could not flip over.  
At dinner time The Vault’s dining hall was also very busy and quite noisy: despite the certain revered quietness that tended to surround the high clergy: a whole lot of them were still mostly just soldiers and once the Archbishop had parted from his seat the room always became noticeably louder. Of course, a lot of the noise could be attributed to the less well-behaved fighters of the Archbishop’s personal guard, but also by the now suddenly present servants who were pouring more wine or bringing eggnog for the ever thirsty knights.  
Janlenoux had prepared a special dessert for his brothers that day. He had had to prepare for it weeks in advance to acquire all the rarer ingredients and to have them delivered on time. He also had a few days of practice runs, the results of which he had made Ser Adelphel taste and give judgement on. The younger Knight had always happily eaten all of them but still given useful feedback, which had eventually resulted into the masterpiece of desserts in Janlenoux’ repertoire.  
Now he was handing out the bowls with his own two hands to his fellow Knights, carefully placing each in front of the man who then thanked him if they remembered any manners, which Ser Grinnaux at least did not.  
“What is this?” The look in the Bull’s countenance was quite odd. His eyes seemed almost lustful but his face was somewhat annoyed. “I am not into desserts… it is not suitable for man to enjoy sweet things.” Then he raised his eyebrow disapprovingly to Paulecrain by his side who had already started eating his portion with an unusually cheerful face, though which in his case meant that his expression was slightly more thawed rather than really warm yet.  
“Ser Grinnaux… I especially created it suitable for male taste. It isn’t your usual ice cream, you see. It’s made of tar, which is hardly a womanly thing, and there is a salted caramel sauce. I have sprinkled crumbs on top but even that isn’t from any normal pie, but one made from nuts and almonds. Whipped cream on the side is mayhap a little girly but I assure you, Ser Grinnaux, it isn’t as sweet as they usually make it. Have I ever disappointed you?” The large bowl of tar ice cream was built like a little scenery with puff of cream to one side, while the ice cream floated in a little pond of caramel sauce and crumbs and on the other side there were cinnamon sticks as if little trees on the side of a mountain.  
The dark skinned man eyed the food again then grumbled under his breath in a defeated manner. “I’ll taste it but I am sure I won’t like it.” Janlenoux just smiled awkwardly and moved to serve the others. When he reached the end of the table though he found that there was hardly a good spot to place the bowl where Noudenet was sitting. The young mage had borrowed some literature from the Inquisition that were to be burned as heretical and he was furiously copying things from them that he deemed interesting and there was quite a bit of that so he had been staying up for days because he only had limited time in the company of the volumes. Janlenoux looked a little worried then placed the bowl down near the edge where there was some free space.  
“Ser Noudenet… I have put your dessert here. Please eat it before it melts.” He was not paid attention to so he reached out to touch the younger man’s shoulder. This time he looked up, glanced from Janlenoux to the dessert and absently nodded, then went back to his work. The blue haired Knight peeked at the text Noudenet’s hand was creating, then at the passages in both of the books he had open. He could hear Noudenet reading out loud under his breath, and realised soon enough that what he was reading was not what he was writing, but seemed as if he was memorising the other book and writing the notes from the other. Janlenoux was impressed but could not understand how the mage’s mind worked: Noudenet clearly possessed a brain unlike anyone else he had ever met. For a moment he kept watching the young man shifting from one book to another as if reading them simultaneously, before Janlenoux moved away to finish his rounds then went and sat by Ser Adelphel to eat his own portion.  
Ser Grinnaux still kept staring at his own bowl with mixed feelings, not very different from the set of nuts in the dessert, although as it was The Bull in question, he mostly managed to think in the lines of ‘hungry?!’ and ‘manly?!’. The poor Bull had been blessed with a brain that was as much a miracle as Ser Noudenet’s, unfortunately it was at the opposite end of the scale, and sometimes even falling out of the scale entirely. Paulecrain kept glancing at him but as usual said nothing about his behaviour. Ser Charibert ate his slowly and spent more time sucking and licking his spoon clean then dipping it into the ice cream, Ignasse, Vellguine and Hermenost all ate while heatedly discussing something or other historical passage that Ignasse had read recently and felt it had not been quite accurate. Haumeric was quietly trying not to watch Ser Charibert but had absently emptied his own bowl already. Adelphel in turn was eating with as much gusto as he had for the past week and kept praising Janlenoux next to him who was eating little faster than usual as he was feeling quite embarrassed about all the attention his dearest brother was giving him.  
“Is the taste different in your bowl, brother?” Adelphel suddenly leaned closer and Janlenoux, with a blush, fed some ice cream and cream with his own spoon to Adelphel, who then agreed that it tasted much better. He then innocently took his own spoon to feed Janlenoux instead, this way they finished their bowls: each feeding the other from his own bowl. Archimandrite Zephirin watched his young charges with a caring expression, but both him and Ser Guerrique had emptied their bowls in matter of seconds, it had simply been too good to stop even for a mere moment to take a breather.  
Grinnaux’ studying of the others suddenly came to an abrupt stop when there was a sound of glass object hitting and breaking onto the stone floor, followed by the most pathetic whine from Ser Noudenet. It turned out that when Guerrique had turned a little too quickly he had elbowed Noudenet’s books pushing them towards the edge, which had made Noudenet move his hand that had then knocked the glass bowl where his ice cream had been: with wide eyes the young mage had stared at the precious container falling from the table, some of the content already spilling out onto the dirty floor before the thing itself landed. Now that wonderful tasty treat lay in a mess of broken glass on the grey stones, some of it seeping into the dirty cracks between the tiles that cleaners could never get quite clean enough. Noudenet slid from his seat and fell on his knee next to his former bowl, his gloved hands landing on either side, and his hair falling to cover his face that was cast downwards. He was shaking as he tried to stop the tears from spilling out. There was no describing the horrible blackness that took over everyone’s heart when one saw ice cream discarded helplessly onto the ground or floor, the utter disappointment of the action was not comparable to anything else and Noudenet felt utter misery squeezing him from the inside. He did not even notice Guerrique coming to his side and apologising while holding onto his shoulders with large hands. His mind had suddenly gone blank and he couldn’t even think of what he had lost when the dessert fell.  
Suddenly another bowl appeared in front his face as if it had come down from the heavens, only it was held by two very dark hands. He looked up, slowly blinked since tears were making his eyelashes wet and after a few seconds Grinnaux’ words registered.  
“Take mine, Noudenet… I… do not want sweet things.” The warrior was not even looking at him obviously greatly embarrassed by his own sudden behaviour of kindness and care. Though had he looked he would have seen the most pathetic crying face turn into a quite impressed and loving smile.  
“Ser Grinnaux…” Noudenet didn’t seem to know what to say but quickly took the untouched bowl of ice cream and held it close to his chest. With a little adoring expression he stared up at the warrior who just kept looking at anything else than Noudenet. Guerrique bit his lip, not looking too pleased and squeezed Ser Noudenet’s shoulders almost possessively. “Thank you, Ser Grinnaux!” Noudenet stood up beaming with delight and this time Grinnaux looked but then just laughed awkwardly and walked away. The cute and happy Noudenet forgot his work for a moment, as he had received this wonderful second chance, and began to eat. But it seemed the taste was much too impressive, and soon tears were flowing freely down his face again. Despite it he kept stuffing the ice cream into his mouth and quietly repeated how good it tasted.  
The Bull sat down and in turn tried not to look at the cute younger man anymore. It was clearly making him behave unlike himself to see the younger man cry. He kept rubbing the back of his head, but he did regret his decision a little: so when everyone’s eyes were somewhere else he snatched the last of Paulecrain’s ice cream and snarled at him. “You should have offered it to me ages ago when I cave mine away.” In truth Paulecrain had not eaten much of his anyway, as he was only waiting for Grinnaux to take it away to eat after his own would have been finished. The lancer just smiled but then leaned to whisper in the bigger man’s ear. “I will thoroughly punish you for being so kind to a cute boy tonight, Ser Grinnaux.” The Bull looked annoyed at his companion, but did not doubt his words. It had been worth the punishment to see Noudenet so happy.


End file.
